They're friends. They're strangers. They talk. They don't talk. It's not entirely clear. The on-again, off-again relationship between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is either a figment of the Republican presidential nominee's imagination or a bad bromance between two alpha males, NBC News reported.

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But even if it's true they're not locking lips like they are in a mural painted on the side of a Lithuanian barbecue joint, public utterances suggest Trump and Putin are in a mutual admiration society of sorts — and have been on each other's radars for years.

In response to an inquiry from NBC News, a Kremlin spokesman insisted Putin and Trump haven't spoken.

"We've said it many times before, President Putin has never had any contacts with Trump, never spoken to him, including by telephone," Dmitry Peskov said. "The same goes for all of his staff."